Promoting Health and Human Rights "With Those Who Have No Voice" Box 1761,
Board of Directors President (CEO) First Vice-President Second Vice-President Chairperson Financial Chairperson Treasurer (CFO) Secretary Registrar Volunteer Coordinator Human Rights Counsel Medical Ethics Counsel Public Health Counsel Public Relations Counsel Linnea Capps, MD, MPH President's Letter DGH Reporter is edited & designed by Monica Sanchez. You can e-mail your comments, suggestions and article ideas, or mail them to: P.O. Box 20111, London Terrace Station, New York, NY 10011. DGH is administered by an elected Board of Directors drawn mostly from past and present volunteers. The board is assisted by an advisory council composed of 100 physicians, students, retirees, artists, nurses, business people and others. A diverse group of volunteers provides the vital core of DGH’s resources, including this newsletter. There are no paid employees. DGH is incorporated in the state of Georgia as a 501(c)3 organization. Donations are tax deductible. |
Three years ago, from the roots of the MDM Integral Community Oriented Primary Care and Human Rights program in El Salvador, and crystal clear about the need for local and global Solidarity with, and accompaniment of, "those who have difficulty making their voices heard," a group of Volunteers created Doctors for Global Health (DGH). "But what of that?" I would like to explore with you some of what DGH has become, as well as a brief vision of where we are going. At the same time, I would like to encourage you to become more of what we are. Naturally, the major site of DGH's accompaniment up until now has been El Salvador. All the work DGH has done in El Salvador has been through our local partner, MDS–both groups having sprung from the same root. What has that accompaniment been, exactly? Since 1995, DGH has provided MDS with more than 25 international Volunteers, many of whom have visited several times. (MDS was DGH's partner organization in El Salvador between 1995 and 2004.)
DGH has provided the MDM/MDS program in Morazán with over $125,000 during this time. (The majority of this has come through your private donations, most of them from $75 to $500.) Through DGH, MDS has also received material donations of computers, a colposcope, optical equipment, books, and other medical and educational supplies. These donations have helped to build a 40-meter-long vehicular bridge, a two-story laboratory and community rehabilitation building, and hundreds of latrines. They have also helped to support the entire MDM/MDS Integral Program in Morazán during a financial crisis that would have shut activities down. The Integral Program consists of the work of 12 Mental Health Promoters for 182 children in five Centers for Integral Child Development (CIDIs); the community work of 24 General Health Promoters (see Promoter Profile for a Profile of one of the first General Health Promoters); curative and preventive medical attention in two clinic-schools; programs in Women's Health and Rights, nutrition and organic agriculture, environmental health, and community based rehabilitation; and community organization with participatory investigation. In addition, they have helped sustain three annual International Colloquiums with the National University of El Salvador.  All the while, DGH has been active in other areas as well. DGH has provided a physician Volunteer trained in community and public health to an under-staffed hospital in Chiapas for a year. In 1998, DGH was one of the founders of the Mexican Solidarity Network (MSN) and sent a delegate with MSN’s human rights exploratory mission to Chiapas in July. In the United States, DGH co-sponsored the 1997 Atlanta Health and Human Rights Lecture Series (with Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control, the Carter Center and other institutions). In addition, DGH has helped to found the Atlanta Committee for the Promotion of Health and Human Rights, which in March of 1998 sponsored a workshop training session on Health and Human Rights taught by Advisory Counsel member Dr. Jonathan Mann (this issue is dedicated to his memory–see In Loving Memory of Dr. Jonathan Mann). DGH also helped inspire the development of a community health program at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, NC. DGH Board Member, Frank Hague, was part of the organization of this program, which involves a Parish Nurse, a health educator, and a social worker. Members of DGH have given lectures on promoting Human Rights to primary and high school children (see DGH Locally), church groups, Kiwanis clubs, colleges and medical, nursing and public health schools. Members of DGH have also given presentations on Liberation Medicine at the Second International Conference on Health and Human Rights of the Harvard School of Public Health, and at national meetings of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). To commemorate and raise awareness of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), DGH is sponsoring a poetry contest with the theme, Promoting Health and Human Rights with Those Who Have Difficulty Making Their Voices Heard, (see Human Rights Around the World for more information on the UDHR). And, finally, there is the publication of the DGH Reporter, which beyond the work described above, is also dedicated to exploring, inspiring and promoting the relationship between health, education, art and Human Rights throughout the world. So, DGH has been active, but where should we go from here? Alas, the opportunities for accompaniment in a world where so many humans have lives that lack dignity (even access to food, health and education) are inexhaustible. DGH will continue to accompany MDS in El Salvador, work in Chiapas and in the US, and weigh other invitations against our limited resources. We will also work to increase those resources, never losing perspective of our fundamental principle of maintaining a global perspective while working at the community level. Please remember that DGH is a membership organization of Volunteers from all walks of life (physicians, teachers, lawyers, engineers, students, retired persons and many more). Where we are in 10 years, or 25; how much we have been able to improve human dignity; who we are and how we work; all of this potential depends on you and your commitment to promoting Health and Human Rights with us and as us. – Lanny Smith, MD, President of Doctors for Global Health; Coordinator and Legal Representative of the MDM-El Salvador Mission of MDM-France; and Research Assistant of the François-Xavier Bagnoud, Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health.
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DGH is Doctors
for Global Health.